Healthy Meals For Kids With Braces

Posted in News

May 1, 2015

Foods that people eat more often than not have a significant effect on their teeth. This is why parents need to take the responsibility of restraining their children from indulging in certain foods sweet to the mouth but harmful to the teeth. Hard fruits, sticky fruits, candy and chewing gum among other sugary foods are not appropriate for your kid after he or she gets braces from a dentist.

Many parents will often say how hard it is to keep their children from these not-so-healthy foods during a consultation visit with a dentist. While this is true to some extent, there is still a way out to lure your kid into sweet foods that are healthy for their teeth especially when on braces. Here are some good examples of foods you may want to consider for your child:

Lactating fruit smoothies

Vitally, bananas and peaches are good options when you want your kids to have the best fruit smoothies. While these two are very healthy and beneficial in terms of brace safety, you may want to put fruits such as apples and berries away for some time, until your kids recover fully and have the braces removed. Apples and berries are not ideal because they are hard and contain seeds that can cause damage to the metalwork of the braces.

Alternatively, you can go for the option of pureeing fruits to eliminate its hardness. As you go about it, straining will remove any seeds that may be in the fruit making it unsafe for your child. To make a simple fruit smoothie for your child, you can pour ½ cup of milk to a blender and add 1 or 2 sliced bananas to it. You may also add an extra cup of your child’s favorite fruit. Once you are through with the mixture, puree it using a blender. Finally, push out the smoothie through a fine mesh sieve into a glass. This process helps strain out any seed that may still be present in the fruit smoothie.

Sweet scrambled eggs

Eggs generally are great source of protein. Scrambled eggs are soft and fluffy making them ideal for a kid with braces. They are ideally perfect for breakfast as they fuel the body with proteins. Alternatively, you can serve scrambled eggs to your child as an off-the-beaten-path meal. Preferably, you can add well-chopped vegetables to the eggs before cooking them. When you are through with the preparation, you can serve scrambled eggs with pancake or any other soft and fluffy bread product. Keep in mind that there is chewy bread that can harm your child’s teeth and interfere with the braces as well.

Mashed potato

Many kids like crispy potato chips because they are sweet and tempting. Honestly, you will have to go through some struggle to keep your child from these foods. Crispy potato chips need to be off-limits when your child has braces. Nonetheless, it does not imply that all potato foods are unsafe for your child. You can make a very delicious potato meal that is both nutritious and safe for your child. For instance, serving a batch of mashed potato at dinner as part of the meal will keep your child’s teeth as well as the braces in good shape – especially after he or she gets the braces tightened. A batch of mashed potato is also a suitable meal for kids who get braces for the first time.

Low fat pudding

Kids with braces can safely and comfortably eat pudding. Pudding is actually soft enough to slip past your kid’s teeth without sticking or being trapped on the wiring unlike other foods. When foods stick to the wiring, they often cause damages to the metalwork and disrupt the dental purpose of braces. Low fat pudding is one of the ideal desserts for kids particularly after a visit to an orthodontist. Essentially, they require minimum effort to eat and are highly nutritious since they mostly contain fruits. You can use other options for aching tooth such as popsicles and frozen yoghurt. The cold in these foods plays a unique role in soothing sore gums making your child feel better.

Braces are essential in correcting some oral or dental problems. Taking your child to a dentist at an early stage of the tooth problem is the best thing you can do for him or her. As kids grow up, they will become more responsible and learn how to take care of their teeth. In addition, you will save them the future trouble of having to go the dentist because of oral issues that could have been ironed out when they were still young. Regular visit to the dentist is important and the best choice you can make as a parent is instilling the value of oral care to your child by regularly taking him or her to the dentist for oral check-up.